Lotto HotPicks Promotion

Lotto HotPicks Promotion 

Background

The Ancillary Lotteries Licence, granted under Section 6 of the National Lottery etc. Act 1993 allows Camelot to promote ancillary lotteries, with the National Lottery Commission’s approval.

The ‘HotPicks Pick1 Giveaway’ was launched under the terms of this licence in November 2005.  One of the conditions of the licence is Camelot must comply with Terms and Conditions for each Ancillary Lottery.  The Terms and Conditions of the ‘HotPicks Pick 1 Giveaway’ stated that for every sixtieth pound spent on the National Lottery Lotto game at retailers during the giveaway period, one free Lotto HotPicks Pick 1 ticket would be issued 

Condition

Condition 3(1) of Schedule 3 of the Ancillary Lotteries Section 6 licence.

Description

The HotPicks Pick 1 Giveaway was due to commence at 6.00 on 20 November 2005, and to end when 1,000,000 free HotPicks Pick 1 Giveaway tickets had been given away or at 7.29pm on 26 November 2005 (whichever was sooner).

However, due to a software error, the majority of players who purchased Lotto tickets from Tesco checkouts were not issued with a free Lotto HotPicks Pick 1 ticket.

The incident was reported to the Commission by Camelot.

Regulatory Action

The Commission considered the issue and wrote to Camelot. Camelot accepted that it was in breach of the requirement to comply with the Terms and Conditions and a breach was recorded on 19 April 2006.

Outcome

A software fix was put in place overnight on 24 November 2005 that corrected the error. 

As a result of this incident 8,166 free tickets were unprinted.  To compensate players, and because the individuals concerned could not be identified, Camelot gave 10,000 Tesco’s Clubcard holders a voucher for a free Lotto HotPicks Pick 1 ticket.